Turkey has closed the Dardanelles strait to shipping traffic as forest fires rage in the area. The country’s Ministry of Transport told The National that traffic had been “temporarily suspended in both directions due to the fires in Canakkale”. An official was unable to confirm a schedule from the ministry’s directorate of coastal safety which suggested the closure would continue until midnight. …Images broadcast by Turkish media showed firefighters being forced to abandon one of their lorries on a forest road as the flames engulfed it. Authorities warned of further strong winds at the weekend. The fire broke out at an agricultural field near Saricaeli village, in Canakkale province, before spreading rapidly into a nearby forested area. With the flames approaching dangerously close to a care home and a campus of the Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University, both facilities were evacuated as a precaution.